In an effort to grow its network of Beechcraft Bonanza, Debonair, Baron and Travel Air instructors around the country, the American Bonanza Society’s Air Safety Foundation has launched a new Flight Instructor Academy to support its BPPP Online+Flight and BPPP LIVE programs, which provide the ground portion of the organization’s type-specific training program.
“ABS created the ABS Flight Instructor Academy to ensure that Beech pilots everywhere have convenient and local access to safe, informed and effective type-specific training, in or out of the BPPP system, and to develop the next generation of BPPP instructors,” said Tom Turner, executive director of the ABS Air Safety Foundation. Turner said the Flight Instructor Academy was created to “teach instructor pilots how to teach Beech” in a standardized way.
Turner said the Flight Instructor Academy program teaches instructor pilots “how to teach Beech” and it takes about six hours to complete the program online or on the iPad. The program consists of 19 courses covering Beechcraft aircraft systems and operation. Names and contact information of instructors who have completed the program will be added to a list on the ABS website.
The program provides instructors a pathway to become approved BPPP instructors. There are currently 48 BPPP instructors spread around the country, said Turner. These instructors are paid directly by ABS Air Safety Foundation and are covered by its instructor insurance policy. But in order to become eligible as an approved BPPP instructor the CFI must meet certain experience criteria and fly with and be signed off by a BPPP Standardization Check Pilot.
